[Orkboy]

I did a bunch of searches and couldn't find anything on this, but forgive me if I missed it.
 
I just received my SE215 LTD today from Accessory Jack. I noticed the "olive" foam tips it comes with have grey filters/wax guards. I own a pair of SE535s and standard SE215s which I bought here in the UK and the foam tips they came with don't have a wax guard. On the SE215 vs SE215 LTD thread nobody mentioned a difference in ear tips. Everything else looks accurate, but this is making me really curious. I did a search for shure foams with wax guards and couldn't find anything. The Shure website only sells the normal ones. Has anyone else come across these? Are they standard in Asia? Or maybe just exclusive to LTD versions?

If they're not the norm, I'll do a little sound comparison review for you.

Here are the pics. The ones at the top are the normal tips, the ones at the bottom the ones with the wax guard/filter.

 

Forgive the Superman pyjamas.
 
 

 
They seem to be a lot more malleable than the normal ones, and take longer to regain their original shape. You can see the ones on the IEMs still haven't recovered from the packaging compression.
 


Edit: Listening to the IEMs now, they're definitely not fake so that's not an issue. Still really curious about these foam tips though. Will give them a listen soon and post the results.

 

[julian67]

Where can I get the Superman PJs? Real ones.

OK back to serious hi-fi head-fi land: do the wax guards make any difference at all to the sound? If so, what?

I have SE215 and I think you would need incredibly gloopy ears (like from a seriously nasty infection) for any wax to make it through the buds and down the tube into the driver case. It seems a little odd. I got wax-guard comply tips for my Sennheiser CX 95 because their driver grille is very fine and very exposed but it's hard to see the reason on the Shures.

 

[Orkboy]

Thanks for the reply. Try Selfridges, I think that's where I got them.
 
Yeah I agree, they're not really necessary. Although the SE215s don't have any sort of filter so if you are unfortunate to get a gloober stuck deep inside the nozzle that could be tragic. I just finished comparing the normal foams to the wax guard ones and the sound difference was very small. Slightly less treble and mids, they sound less open, the bass ever so slightly boomier and less punchy. But it's a very, very slight difference. I have to add that I don't use the foam olives normally, I use large Klipsch gels.

I was just really interested because I haven't seen these before and I couldn't find anything about them on the internet.
 

 

[Orkboy]

Orky bump

 

[Robgo]

I have some after market tips with a wax guard (it is made of foam rather than whatever the white is on the tips in the OP). I find that you do lose a bit of fidelity with them.

 

[aksaiyo]

Just got my regular SE215 (back?) from Shure. I originally sent them in a week ago because I broke the nozzel, it was under the warranty so they sent back a replacement pair. Those exact foamies with filters in your picture were already on them when I received them. I guess these are the new olives? I haven't changed them out to compare with the other tips because it's such a pain and I'm afraid of breaking that nozzel again >.<